1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a postcard for confidential purposes comprising a three-folded postcard form having on at least one major side a first region to bear an address and second regions to bear items of confidential information, said second regions being folded in two along a line located on the middle portion of and between second regions; a laminated sheet assembly for temporarily bonding together said second regions; and an adhesive sheet for bonding together the back sides of said first region and one of said second regions which is adjacent to said first region through a folding line. The present invention also relates to a reply postcard for confidential purposes comprising a postcard in a combination form consisting of a Z-folding postcard form having on at least one major side a first region to bear an address and second regions to bear items of confidential information, one of said second regions being folded back onto the back side of said first region along a folding line and the other of said second regions being folded back onto said one second region along a folding line located at the middle portion of and between said second regions and a reply postcard form defining a third or reply region contiguous to the other of said regions a folding line along which it is folded back onto the back side of said other second region. The first and second regions and the third region, if any, can be printed at the same time by means of a printer such as a computer laser printer, and the second regions can be separated off when printed.
2. Statement of Prior Art
Heretofore, sealed letters have been used as communications means in such cases where ensuring privacy is a primary problem. However, the sealed letters are dearer than postcards in at least postage fees, leading to increased demand toward means for lowering the cost. A problem with less costly postcards, however, is that the information is exposed to others' views. For annunity payment notices in particular, it is strongly desired in view of ensuring recipients' privacy that they can never be exposed to those other than recipients. This is also true of various documents sent from banking facilities, insurance companies, stockbrokers and taxation offices as well as of electrical, gas, water, telephone and other rates bills and overdue notices. For such documents, it is also increasingly required that they are never exposed to the eyes of persons other than the individuals concerned.
In recent years, documents prepared in various fields incidental to services and mailed from banking facilities and taxation offices to the electrical, gas, water and telephone enterprises, for the most part, have been mainly printed with computer-aided printers. Usually, they have been mailed to the recipients in letter forms so as to ensure their privacy. However, there is a rise in the mailing cost with time-consuming enveloping, sealing and other works. In view of ensuring privacy, it has more recently been envisaged and put in practice to apply on the information-bearing side of a postcard a seal having a releasable, low-adhesive mass on its back side in order to conceal the information. In using such an adhesive seal, however, it is required that release paper applied for protection of the low adhesive layer be removed there from prior to applying the seal on the information-bearing side of a postcard. For those who use large quantities of postcards, this poses a problem that a large amount of released papers should be disposed. Another problem is that the information-bearing sides of postcards are vulnerable to be torn out when they are unsealed by the recipients. Still another problem is that any sufficient effect upon preventing an invasion of privacy is not achieved, because the low adhesive mass is bondable and releasable repeatedly without leaving any trace of peeling.
As set forth in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 64(1989)-16368, a postcard has been proposed, which has an adhesive agent applied along the periphery of its back side at a suitable width with a seal perforated in a position corresponding to the adhesive agent. A problem with this postcard, however, is that the amount of the information to be printed is much limited since nothing can be printed on its adhesive-carrying portion. As set forth in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 63(1988)-11863, there is also available a postcard having on its back side a laminated sheet consisting of seven layers in all, i.e., a seal assembly consisting of five layers in all, viz., a substrate provided on its surface side with an aluminaized layer and provided on its back side with a low-density polyethylene cover film laminated with a low-density polyethylene and a high-density polyethylene film with a binder layer located therebetween, said binder layer being formed by hot-extruding a low-density polyethylene of the same type of which said low-density polyethylene film is formed at a temperature lower than the usual melting point of said low-density polyethylene, followed by solidifiation, and a release paper provided on said low-density polyethylene film through a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer. Problems with this postcard, however, are that the laminated sheet used for it is a complicated assembly of a seven-layer structure and that, as already mentioned, large quantities of release papers to be later disposed of are left. Another problem is that because it is designed to bear items of confidential information on its one side alone, some limitations are had as to the amount of information to be born and the scope of use of it. Still another problem arises out of this postcard which is designed to print an address on its front side and information on its back side. In other words, it is necessary to ensure whether it is rightly addressed with the right information on its back.
Further, such postcards so far available are of the "one-way" type. When the recipients have doubts about the items of confidential information written thereon, therefore, they will have to use separate postcards or letters for making inquiries.
The present invention has for its object to provide a solution to the above problems.